The Serpent & The Falcon
by Felicia Ingren
Summary: HP:HBP. Elizabeth Braonáín is starting her seventh and final year at Hogwarts. Five years, she’d cone to know the kind man behind the hard & cold surface of one particular potion master. Six years, her mentor. Two years, she’d fought for his attention. One year, she’d fought her own growing feelings. With the final stand closing in on them, he answers.


**A.N: I am by no means claiming to be J K Rowling! All characters, enviorment, storyparts that has been taken from the books is entirely the rights of J K herself. I only borrow them in my story to enchance the experience to the readers, for the use of this fanfiction which is under no circumstances nothing that is meant to be in the original storyline!**

**This fanfiction is an alternative universe fanbased story of J K's most amaizing story of Harry Potter, and nothing more!**

**All rights reserved to J K Rowling, besides my OC!**

**I hope you'll enjoy the story!**

On a warm summer's day during the summer brakes last week, Elizabeth Braonáín was as she always had been spending her brake at her relatives mansion. She spent her days for herself, brewing potions, reading about potions and dark arts and duelling with her uncle.

Of course she didn't spend brake all alone. There was some few times that her cousin WIlliam would come and visit her.

She could almost not believe that this year would be her last at Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry. She didn't want to graduate from the school, but still, she couldn't wait to get back to the school. Oh, how she longed for it.

That same day, during dinner time, Elizabeth didn't talk that much but instead she listened quietly to her uncle and aunts conversation.

"Oh yes, before I forget it. It is very important that you do not disturbed me under any circumstances tomorrow after the dinner." Elizabeth's uncle, Antrim, said and took a sip from his glass of wine.

Both Elizabeth and her aunt looked at the uncle slightly inquiring.

"And why is that, love?" her aunt, Daere, asked as she took a bite from her food.

"Tomorrow Snape and some others are"

"Snape?!" Elizabeth interrupted her uncle. "As in Severus Snape? My mentor? Professor Snape?!"

Antrim gave his niece a warning look and was about to say something nasty when Daere kicked him on his leg under the table and gave him a warning look. Antrim hesitated a bit before he answered his niece irritated.

"Yes… Severus Snape. But as I was saying, Snape and some of the others are coming over tomorrow for a very important meeting, and it's very important that none of you interrupt that meeting."

Elizabeth sank back into her chair and just stared at her plate. What was Snape going to do here? At her home?

Her heart pounded against her chest so hard it felt like she couldn't breath for a moment.

Her aunt looked at her for some slight moment and laid a gentle hand on her right shoulder.

"Elizabeth, are you okay?" She asked and Elizabeth didn't move a single muscle in her body.

"I'm fine," she said. "May I excuse myself?" She asked and stood up to leave as Daere nodded as answer to her question.

Elizabeth didn't say anything or do anything as she left the dining room and moved herself up to the library where she hid herself in the wonderful world of books until she got to bed.

The next day flew past faster than Elizabeth could believe, and soon she was sitting in the library once again, reading one of her favourite potions book written by George S.T. Wreatchetburgh. She always got amazed by his work as a true master of potioneers. She sat in one of the overlarge chairs by the open fire which burned with life and power. The heat kept her body warm and scared the cold away from the room.

She had already read three of his books and couldn't get enough of them. Wreatchetburgh had also written two books about dark magic, and that made Elizabeth burn with curiosity and also it amazed her that he'd done works about that subject.

Suddenly Elizabeth was interrupted in her reading by some footstep heading towards her. She closed the book and looked to were she heard the footstep.

To her surprise Snape stood there, calm as always.

"Professor… what are you doing here?!" She asked a bit confused as she laid her book on the small table beside the chair.

"Excuse me if I disturbed you… I thought your uncle would be here." Snape answered calmly and looked around slightly.

Elizabeth then remembered the meeting her uncle had told them about the evening before.

"Oh yeah, right… that meeting. No he's not here yet, but if you'd want to wait here for him, I wouldn't mind." She said as she gestured for him to sit.

Snape sat down beside her on the second chair and you could tell that it was, maybe not uncomfortable, but strange to be sitting with his student and talk. Elizabeth smirked almost unnoticeable.

_So it is a equal feeling we two share at the moment, professor_, she thought and took her book again.

"Gabriel S.T. Wreatchetburgh huh?" Snape said of a sudden. Elizabeth looked at him over the book.

"His books have caught my interest, yes," She answered and shut the book once more.

"I've heard his a quiet good potioneer." Snape said with a smirk on his lips.

"His more than a good potioneer, Sir. You really should read them sometime, his works fascinates almost every mind who's open for a new way of thinking when it comes to potions and dark arts."

"Is that so, Ms Braonáín?"

Elizabeth nodded and gave him the book she'd been reading so that he could look it through a moment.

Snape took the book and smirked once again and handed it back.

"It's okay. I actually already read one of his works."

Elizabeth just looked at her mentor for a brief moment. It almost looked like he was smiling. Not his usual smirk, but a real smile.

_Impossible, my head is playing me again_. She thought and looked at the fire which caught her attention.

Before none of them had the chance to continue their conversation, Antrim walked into the library.

"There you are Snape! I thought you'd never come!" He said and shook his hand as the other man got up from the chair.

"Antrim." Snape greeted the old man with a calm and icy voice.

"Well, the others should be here soon, so if you could leave the two of us alone, Elizabeth." Antrim said and gave her a hard look.

Elizabeth nodded and took her books and stood up from her chair.

"As a matter of fact, maybe Ms Braonáín would like to do us company during the meeting perhaps?" Snape spoke of a sudden.

Elizabeth felt the temptation but shook her head.

"Thank you professor, but I'll have to decline your offer. I actually have some homework to do before the school start." She answered and left them.

Some hours later, Elizabeth was lying on top of her bed and still reading her books. She had almost finished two out of five books already.

Suddenly she heard a knock on the door. She looked up and wondered who it could be.

"Yes? Who is it?" She asked with a slightly loud voice, hearing the muffled voice of her professor. She sat straight up in her bed, her brain trying to undestand what in Merlin's name he was doing outside her room at such a late time.

"May I enter, Ms Braonáín?"

"You may enter, Sir." Came her answer as he opened the door.

"Excuse me for the intrusion, Ms Braonáín."

Elizabeth shook her head.

"It's okay, Sir, I just wasn't prepared to see you two times in the same day." She answered and tried to avoid looking straight at him."Was there anything special you wanted to speak with me, Sir?"

"I just wanted to make sure everything was fine with you, Ms Braonáín." It almost looked like he had to think of what to answer her.

"Why wouldn't it be, Sir?"

Snape shook his head a bit and stood a bit awkwardly by the door which he had closed as soon as he'd entered.

"Using the excuse of doing homework before school even starts is not that belivable, Ms Braonáín." He answered and quirked the side his mouth in a smirk. She only blushed in response.

"As said, I only wanted to make sure everything was okay with you. Your uncle seemed slighty annoyed with you earlier."

"He is like that all the time with me, sir." She answered with a small snort. "Nothing to think of."

The silence filled the room like a thick fog and it seemed like none of them where to speak.

"Are you excited about the last school start?" Snape suddenly asked a bit stern, very uncomfortable with the subject he just choose.

Elizabeth looked at her mentor and professor and nodded, quite taken of guard by his question.

"I long for it, but I am a bit nervous if I may be honest with you Sir. Excited and nervous, in a positive way." She answered calmly.

Snape just nodded and became silent once more, before he opened his mouth to speak again.

"So … What are your plans after you've graduated from Hogwarts?" He asked and felt the odd feeling of asking a student about something private in her life. "If I may ask that question of course, Ms Braonáín."

Elizabeth was frankly surprised by the professors sudden interest in her life after her graduation but just smirked a bit and looked out through the window.

"Oh, I have my plans, I really do." She began and looked at him for a moment before she continued. "But I shall see what those plans will grant me later on. You see professor, it's not my decision in the end if my plans goes as I hope they will or not."

Snape didn't say anything as it looked like but inside his mind he thought about what she told him and questions began to roll in his mind. But before anyone of them could speak one more word, Elizabeth's uncle came and interrupted their conversation, if you could call it a conversation.

"Snape, I had just began to wonder if you sneaked out during the meeting just to get rid of us all!" Antrim said and saw his neice.

"Shouldn't you be asleep by now, Elizabeth?" He asked a bit annoyed and Elizabeth showed him her book and was going to explain herself when Snape open his mouth.

"It's okay Braonáín, I just wanted a word with your neice about the school. I didn't know you treated your next generation as a child."

Antrim began to change colour in his face from the light rose reddish pink which was thanks to the bottle of fire whiskey that the older men had shared during the meeting, to the red of a roaring fire of a dragons breath or the same red as the blood of a virgin.

"And what, if I may ask, is that supposed to mean Snape?!" He spat out his question and laid his hand over the wand by his hips.

Snape saw his hand and shook his head.

_You fool, dare to draw your wand against me old man!?_ Snape thought and crossed his arms.

"I mean nothing by it, but you better let go of your wand and rethink your choice of act towards me Braonáín" Snape said coldly and stood as calm as ever. Elizabeth sat still during the whole time and just looked at the scene in front of her as Snape went against her uncle, or if it was the other way.

"What are you going to do if I don't do as you say?" Antrim was cocky as always when he'd some firewhiskey and Elizabeth damned her uncle for that foolishness which may be his undoing one day.

Snape looked back on Elizabeth for a fast moment and then back at Antrim and smirked as he always did when he was on that devilish mode in school with the students.

"What a good role model you are to your own neice Braonáín, challenging a very strong wizard as me in front of her all drunk and cocky, old man." Snape just walked up to the old drunk man and whispered something in his ear that Elizabeth didn't hear.

While Snape talked to him, Antrim lost all his colour in the face and became white as the Bloody Baron and took a hard grip of his own left forearm.

This was something new for Elizabeth for she had never seen her uncle so afraid of someone or something before as now. She wondered what Snape may had said that would scare her uncle so much.

After a while, Snape was done and looked at Elizabeth.

"Well I shall leave now, Ms Braonáín, I hope to see you at school's start. Antrim." He said before he left in a hurry.

Elizabeth was very quiet for a moment and so was Antrim before he looked at his nephew a bit angry.

"You. Go to sleep. Now. And not a word about this to anyone." he said before he slammed the door behind him and left Elizabeth alone and confused.

Two weeks had gone since the incident between Snape and Antrim and it was finally time for Elizabeth to start her last year at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Oh, how she'd long for returning to the school and get rid of her aunt and uncle for a whole school year.

As she was checking through her belongings one last time, she thought back to that night when her uncle had his meeting in which professor Snape had attended for some unknown reason to her.

"Elizabeth, hurry up! It's almost time to go dear!" She could hear her aunt from the main floor, interrupting her thoughts. Elizabeth sighed a bit as she levitated her belongings and walked down to her aunt and uncle.

As she came down the stairs, her uncle waved his wand and took over her levitating belongings and gave his own nephew a bit of a hard look. Elizabeth just met his glare and felt the joy of leaving the mansion as fast as possible.

"Very well then, come on now Elizabeth, we'll be late for your train if we don't take the port key now." Antrim said as he checked the time. Elizabeth sighed once more and just nodded as answer to her uncle.

She said goodbye to her aunt, who hugged her and wished her a good last year at the school and she left the house.

As they were Walking on the train platform Elizabeth once again thought about her uncles meeting, in which professor Snape had attended. She looked up at her uncle for a brief moment as she fought the temptation to ask him about the meeting or not.

Elizabeth took a deep breath as she felt how her whole body started to tremble from the thoughts she had.

"Uncle…" She said and waited for his answer. Antrim didn't say anything either did he look at her, but kept walking toward the location of the port key. Elizabeth looked down to the ground as they walked, but then decided to ask him anyway.

"Uncle, that meeting you had some weeks ago…" She started to talk which got the older man's attention now.

"What about it?" He asked sternly. Elizabeth bit her lower lip for a fast second.

"What was it about?" She asked simply.

Antrim looked straight ahead as she asked him.

"Nothing important, it wouldn't be any of your interest Elizabeth." He said even more sternly, and Elizabeth gave a small nod with her head.

"But… Why were professor Snape there?" She then asked. "You've never invited him before to a meeting… Why did you do it that time?"

Antrim stopped and thought back to the meeting those three weeks ago. As he thought back, he remembered the port key and looked at his nephew.

"Never ask me anything about that meeting again, you understand?!" He said coldly and started to walk very fast. "Hurry up, otherwise you'll miss the Express other way."

**A.N: Tell me what you think! I'd love some feedback on whatever in the story!**


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